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CoinWeek IQ: Three Things You Should Know Before You Start to Collect Medals
Oct 6, 2016
Medals are a vital area of numismatics, but their complexity and scope can seem intimidating for collectors looking to branch out away from coins. In this CoinWeek IQ video, American token and medal expert John Kraljevich offers three important tips to help narrow the learning curve. CoinWeek is the #1 website online for news and information about numismatics. CoinWeek has also won the NLG Award for best numismatic website 4 years running! Take your hobby the next level! Be sure to share this video with your friends and be sure to check out all CoinWeek has to offer by visiting us at www.coinweek.com. CoinWeek IQ Video: #019 Copyright ©2016 CoinWeek, LLC.
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0:14
so John you're one of the big names in
0:16
Americana one of the big leading experts
0:18
and researchers in the field we've done
0:19
quite a bit of cataloging over the
0:21
course of your career a lot of coin
0:23
collectors are interested in modality
0:25
art and Americana
0:27
but it seems daunting for them because
0:28
the literature for it and the a variety
0:31
of pieces is far more diverse than
0:33
traditional coin collecting yes what
0:35
would you say three big things a
0:37
collector should know before they get
0:39
into the field three things well let's
0:41
see first I guess I would say don't be
0:43
afraid to specialize and don't be afraid
0:45
to not specialize probably the most
0:47
successful collectors and tokens and
0:49
metals and other oddball Americana
0:51
things pick a field they love and and
0:53
get expert at it they get expert by
0:55
buying things by looking at the the
0:57
auctions by seeing the institutional
1:00
collections and they start to figure out
1:02
where the gaps are in the published
1:03
published information and in the paper
1:06
trail so whether it be Washington IANA
1:08
or US Mint metals or counter stamps pick
1:10
a spot don't be afraid to dance around a
1:12
little bit to pick a spot and really
1:13
specialize the second piece of advice
1:16
I'd give is while standard references
1:18
are vital there's going to be much more
1:20
information and much more up-to-date
1:21
information in auction catalogues than
1:23
there's going to be in standard
1:24
references well you need the Julian book
1:26
on us mid metals or the brung book on
1:28
counter stamps you also need the most
1:30
recent large auction presentations to
1:32
learn more about rarity pricing
1:34
availability things like that which are
1:36
a lot of things that older standard
1:38
references can't give you and I guess my
1:40
third piece of advice would be to build
1:42
a relationship with other collectors and
1:43
dealers because especially in Americana
1:46
a lot of the information has never been
1:47
published has never been written and
1:49
it's still living up here in somebody's
1:50
head so there are a number of good
1:52
specialty clubs for that like the metal
1:54
metal collectors of America for for
1:57
metals in particular and there's a
1:58
number of very good specialty dealers
1:59
and knowledgeable collectors who are
2:00
more than willing to share well one of
2:03
the hurdles I think maybe some people
2:04
might feel is are these things actually
2:06
worth money
2:08
how do you how do you switch that fear
2:11
though for somebody getting into it
2:12
where you know when you think about like
2:13
a you know it's easy to tabulate a
2:16
valuable sure in dollars yeah he seller
2:18
a little harder with a hard times token
2:20
or maybe a metal from the 19th century
2:22
it for some obscure then it is I think
2:24
it's important to remember in a long
2:25
view that tokens and medals have been
2:27
collected much longer than many of the
2:29
coins that are popular today in the
2:31
1860s the auction rooms were full of
2:33
people trying to buy political medals
2:35
and mint medals and Indian Peace medals
2:37
and they didn't really care too much
2:38
about other things remember this is when
2:40
proof gold was selling for face value in
2:42
a lot of auctions so it's important to
2:44
remember that there is a very long
2:45
tradition of collecting this kind of
2:46
material and valuing it very highly in
2:49
terms of actually evaluating things
2:51
today because published price records
2:53
don't exist on a lot of these things
2:55
it's really important to depend upon
2:57
auctions and to understand the different
2:59
quality levels just like grade matters
3:01
and coins quality levels and matter and
3:03
tokens and medals too but auctions are
3:05
we're gonna get probably your most
3:06
important pricing information but also
3:09
in the cases of the dealers who
3:10
specialize in this sort of thing and
3:11
know what the market will bear sometimes
3:14
it's important to take a leap of faith
3:15
and and actually acquire things with the
3:18
understanding that the specialized
3:20
dealers in this material are always
3:21
happy to make a two-way market and
3:22
things if you're buying from someone who
3:24
doesn't actually buy as well as sell
3:26
tokens of metals you're probably in the
3:28
wrong place but good tokens of metals
3:30
things that I've sold years ago I'm
3:31
always happy to buy back at a fair price
3:32
because there are a number of other
3:34
collectors you'd like to own them as
3:36
well and one of the great things about
3:37
this field of numismatics is there
3:39
really is like no no floor to the price
3:43
point I mean you can really get in at
3:45
any budget I mean if you show up at a
3:47
coin show with ten dollars in your
3:48
pocket you can leave with some kind of
3:50
cool piece of eggs anemia almost no
3:52
matter what the size of the show four
3:54
big hangin a shows it tends to be a
3:56
little bit more expensive items
3:57
sometimes for a guy like me that has to
3:59
travel 3,000 miles and only has so much
4:01
room in his briefcase
4:02
but even at my table you know a hundred
4:04
bucks get you something really cool with
4:06
a great story and a real strong base
4:08
level of rarity there too great well I
4:10
appreciate the insights done good luck
4:12
always nice talking to you
4:13
thank them